


things that used to comfort me (no comfort anymore)

by theseourbodies



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, Replicator!Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 09:14:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9649325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theseourbodies/pseuds/theseourbodies
Summary: Tag for episode 4.10 "This mortal coil"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori





	

Existence is complicated. 

She is Teyla Emmagan, her father's daughter, and she is Athosian and proud. This is her team, breathing around her in the close recycled air of the familiar Ancient ship. They exist here. 

But she has seen now, they have only existed for a miniscule part of the time she remembers. She is Teyla, and she is not. John Sheppard sits before her and Elizabeth Weir is braced against the bulkhead, but as she sees them they only exist here, this small closed moment. The blood in her body pounds hard in her ears. They lift off and the Replicator battleship looms up in the skyline before them. The Ronon of this moment is watching her; silently, he reaches for her and she takes his hand gently; he takes a moment to look at Elizabeth, shares a rueful smile with them both. 

In front of him, this moment's Rodney glances back at them all, and it is always so much, too much, to see him at times like this, when he feels all the things that the rest of them cannot fully remember how to with such honesty-- fear and resignation and gentleness. She knows her physical eyes have never seen this look on his face before, but the knowledge of it feels set deep into her bones. Very slowly, he reaches for John like Ronon reached for her, setting a light hand on John's wrist. John looks to him for a long moment, then lets his gaze sweep slowly around the cabin. She knows that he is feeling the same way she is-- that even though the eyes in his body have only witnessed them all together here in the 'jumper once before, the knowledge of how right it feels is undeniable. 

They rise, John's hands deft on the controls. She allows herself to exist here, as Teyla entirely with Ronon's hand in hers. She can see the gate activating even as they rip by it, speeding towards the Replicator battleship.

The first blast takes their cloak and knocks Elizabeth back, the tumble and splay of her body terribly familiar--

The second blast drops them from the sky.

The world outside the window spins wildly and as the dampeners give out, they spin with it, tumbling to the ground like tragedy, like myth.

The end is inevitable. There is nothing to regret; they are simply after-images, moments in lives that stretch far behind and before them.


End file.
